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Fall of Paris
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill tried for days to convince the French government not to surrender to the Germans. When German tanks got to Paris, two million Parisians already fled. The German Gestapo started to arrest, interigate, and spy. French men and women hoped for a free France. President Roosevelt froze the assets of Germany and Italy. -
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler launched armies on a massive invasion of the Soviet Union. Germany tried to invade and take Moscow. The weather was harsh, but the generals urged Hitler to continue. At Moscow, Soviet's counterattacked the Germans. -
Pearl Harbor
At 7:48 a.m., over 350 Japanese war planes from six aircraft carriers started bombing U.S. ships. The attack lasted about 90 minutes, causing battleship damage. Congress then declared war on Japan on December 8 and on Germany and Italy on December 11. This resulted in the U.S. entering World War II. -
Bataan Death March
The Filipinos and Americans were rounded up by the Japanese and forced to march 65 miles from Mariveles to the Bataan Peninsula. The men were divided into groups and each group took about five days to complete the march. Thousands were starved, beat, and weak overall. -
Allied Invasion of Italy
The day that the Allied arrived, the Italian government secretly agreed to the Allies terms for surrender. The Italian dictator Mussolini wanted to build Italy into a new Roman Empire. The Allies landed in Sicily on July 10th. Within three days, 150,000 Allied Troops were ashore and that led to the collapse of the goverment. Mussolini was arrested and forced to resign. The new government later declared war on Germany. -
D-Day
On June 6th, 1944, Eisenhower had allied naval forces land on the Northern Coast of France. MOre than 130,000 Allies invaed the beaches of Normandy. One million men then landed within weeks. Northern France had been liberated by August of 2944. Before D-Day, the allies came up with a campaign to mislead the Germans about the invasion target. The Allies ended up defeating Germany. -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
Soviet soldiers were the first ones to liberate prisoners of the concentration camps. On July 23rd, 1944, the Allies entered the Majdanek camp in Poland.On jaunary 27th, 1945, they entered Auschwitz and found hundreds of sick and exhausted prisoners. The Germans retrieted the camps and they tried to empty them of the surviving prisoners and hide evidence of their crimes. But, the Allies camp upon thousands of dead bodies. Lots of prisoners' belongings were found. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The American invasion of Iwo Jima came from the need for a base near the Japanese coast. After preparing air and naval war attack, three U.S. Marine divisions landed on the island. They were met with 23,000 Japanese army/navy troops. They fought from caves, tunnels, and underground areas. The fight lasted a month and the battle earned a place in American history. -
Dropping the atomic bombs
The United States became the first nation to use atomic weapons by dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The united States had been working on atomic weapons starting around 1940 after being tipped off by Albert Einstein about Nazi Germany starting to use atomic weapons. The Potsdam Conference ended soon after the atomic bombing. -
Potsdam Declaration
It was the day after the bombing on Nagasaki, Japan. Japan concurred with the terms of surrender from the Potsdam Conference. President Truman ordered a hault to the atomic bombing. America bombed Hiroshima on August 6th and Nagasaki on August 9th. Tokyo sent a message which was later passed on to the Allies accepting the Potsdam Declaration. This made Truman halt the atomic bombing. -
V-J Day
Japan had surrended to the Allies and this ended World War II. The day is named because it means "Victoryover Japan Day". President Truman announced Japan's surrender in a press conference at the white houses and Americans referred to the day as "V-J Day". Americans were relieved by the news, but the V-J Day fell out because they didn't want to offend the Japanese.
